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Wednesday, July 1, 2015

For years, American's working hours have increased but wages have not kept up. In 1975, more than 60 percent of full-time salaried workers earned time-and-a-half pay for every hour worked over 40 hours per week. Today, just 8 percent do.

President Obama has taken steps to change that. His new overtime proposal, will male nearly 5 million workers eligible for overtime pay.
Currently, the only salaried workers guaranteed the right to overtime pay are those earning less than $23,660 per year. The administration’s new proposal more than doubles that $23,600 threshold—raising it to $50,440.

The new rule will raise the salary threshold to cover all full-time workers earning $970 a week–or $50,440 a year–or less and prevent future erosion of overtime by automatically updating the salary threshold based on either inflation or wage growth over time. Under the new rule, workers and employers will also enjoy clarity about who should be earning overtime.

Strengthening worker protections like overtime pay makes way for workers to be fairly compensated for their hard work and will put extra funds in the pockets of millions of middle-class workers.

The President's proposal won’t happen on its own. Now that the draft rule has been released there is an important comment period before the rule will become final. You can have your voice heard by contacting The US Department of Labor @FixOvertime.organd submit a comment letter directly to Secretary Tom Perez explaining how the rule could help you.